Home making peer pressure

So, apparently being one of 2 social workers in my building means I'm a "co-department head."  And apparently being a "co-department head" means I am part of an "executive team."  As a member of the "executive team" I get lots of perks like free breakfast on Mondays and Thursdays, and I am privy to the financial performance of our facility. 

This last month marked 13 months of profitability, "in the black," or "not spending more than we earn," which for a hospital is pretty amazing. 

In order to celebrate and say "thank you" to the staff for all of their hard work in contribution to this success, we had a salmon barbecque for lunch yesterday.  The "executive team" brought all of the food.  I'm the youngest person on the team, and as we all volunteered to bring things, there were entries like "50 lbs of sea salmon," "shrimp and maccaroni salad" etc.  By the time I realized that I was expected to bring something to this event, someone had already signed up for "chinese chicken salad"--the most economical mass quantity dinner one can possibly make. 

PAUSE: I have a problem with bringing things to events with people who are richer than me.  I like my cooking.  My husband likes my cooking.  People who we invite to eat at our home tend to enjoy my cooking.  After that point, I've had bad experiences.  The last time I volunteered to bring a family who had requested help with meals a dinner, I reached their door (in a millionare neighborhood) and all the host could say when he saw my offering was "Well, I guess that works."

I now have performance anxiety.

The only thing I could think to make was a tuna noodle salad that I LOVE but haven't been able to make in the last 2 years because Dale hates both onions and tuna, which this is ripe full of.  It feeds me about 8 times.  And I eat a LOT of this stuff.  As my last experience's poor reception could have been signed off as bad presentation, I decided to break out the fancy presentation ware dishes that I got as a wedding gift and had not yet used, hoping that would make the difference.

I got to work, hoping to put my dish in the fridge somewhere before having to carry it through the building, open to the scrutiny of all who would judge my home making.  I approached our catering manager:

"So it's a cold dish?"

"yup"

"And that's it?" sizing up my blue kitchen bowl and mentally calculating how many people we had to feed.

I held back my blush and pushed out a "yup" before I could feel too embarassed for not making enough and she showed me which fridge was State approved for staff dishes. 

My greatest fear was that no one would eat it, and I would have the shame of being rejected by everyone who came by for the more fancy, expensive ingredient dishes.  I even watched people who dished it up onto their plates to see if they would actually eat it, or just have a taste and then throw it away with the rest of their plate whiped clean.

I definately don't have it in me to be a cateror.